Atlanta Regional Commission, Georgia

Aging
to thriving

Tucked away within Atlanta’s metropolitan planning organization lived a robust team with a mosaic of missions designed for older Americans. ARC needed to translate its government charter into an accessible framework to inspire internal teams and engage external audiences.

Atlanta Regional Commission, Georgia

Aging to thriving

Tucked away within Atlanta’s metropolitan planning organization lived a robust team with a mosaic of missions designed for older Americans. ARC needed to translate its government charter into an accessible framework to inspire internal teams and engage external audiences.

With the U.S. population aging at a historic rate, the human need was great, the political will was active, yet the alignment of the two was elusive.

Despite a commitment to the community, ARC’s potential was hindered: hidden in government-formatted messaging, tangled in eligibility matrices, buried in long-format communication tools, and fragmented in org charts.

Leading a national movement and regional activity to help older adults age-in-place, could they sharpen focus, shift perception, and modernize platforms?

Leadership team

“The people that need us don’t understand what we do.”

Hunt for clarity

The front-end, problem-finding process was research intensive given the sheer inventory of services. Interviews, workshops, materials review: What was the central mission connecting all the disparate programs?

Organize for impact

Org charts were creating internal and external walls. Could we move the division from a behind-the-scenes operation to a community facing brand and align the workforce behind a clear, singular mission?

Prioritize the people

It was clear the government funding mandates were prescriptive and two-dimensional. To connect with the humans they were responsible to serve, could we map audience journeys and experiences to respond with empathetic solutions?

Overhaul the systems

Verbal, visual, and digital platforms needed a reboot. Tasked to reach a 10-county region—rural and urban, low literacy and educated, plugged in and off the grid—how could we create a portable story to easily translate to every channel?

Hunt for clarity

The front-end, problem-finding process was research intensive given the sheer inventory of services. Interviews, workshops, materials review: What was the central mission connecting all the disparate programs?

Organize for impact

Org charts were creating internal and external walls. Could we move the division from a behind-the-scenes operation to a community facing brand and align the workforce behind a clear, singular mission?

Prioritize the people

It was clear the government funding mandates were prescriptive and two-dimensional. To connect with the humans they were responsible to serve, could we map audience journeys and experiences to respond with empathetic solutions?

Overhaul the systems

Verbal, visual, and digital platforms needed a reboot. Tasked to reach a 10-county region—rural and urban, low literacy and educated, plugged in and off the grid—how could we create a portable story to easily translate to every channel?

In a sector where “accessibility” is a mandate, we shifted focus from programs to people and created an empathetic narrative using human-centered design. Shining bright as a beacon of innovation for the region, the state, and the sector, the new brand platform used a clever combination of user experience strategy and technical sophistication to establish an information hub for humans. Meet empowerline.

To introduce and manage change during this transformational period, we facilitated inclusive, design-thinking workshops to help the team chart the course ahead and keep everyone aligned. With a renewed vision and energy, we traded dizzying drop down menus for delightful digital experiences and stigmatized issues for intuitive service design. It’s well designed, well being.

Program director